Joel Fernandes (G+) is a tech enthusiast and a social media blogger. During his leisure time, he enjoys taking photographs, and photography is one of his most loved hobbies. You can find some of his photos on Flickr.
He does a little of web coding, and maintains a tech blog of his own - Techo Latte.
Joel is currently pursuing his Masters in Computer Application from Bangalore, India. You can get in touch with him on Twitter - @joelfernandes, or visit his Facebook Profile for more information.

Facebook’s anti-spam computer algorithm might have a way to tackle scam messages, but that doesn’t stop scammers from creating new scams and spreading them across the network. A new bogus offer is now underway, which offers users a “Free $100 Pizza Hut Gift Card” upon completing a set of surveys.

Many animal rescue organizations and environmental activists, who depend on Facebook to organize events and rescue animals, were accused of posting spam messages. Hence the automated system that identified the content as “spam”, notified the group members and other activists that they have been banned for 15 days from posting anything at all.

Wen-Ai Yu, an employee at Google, announced on her Google Plus profile along with a YouTube video stating that the social network has started the verification process by providing a â€œverified nameâ€ badge to all celebrities and public figures.

In the past, we reported a number of Facebook scams that were spreading like wildfire. Scam messages including â€œGirl Killed Herself After Dad Posted On Wall Scamâ€, â€œMarika Fruscio Spamâ€, â€œOMG Canâ€™t Believe Justin Beiber Did This To A Girl Spamâ€, which were reported earlier are still spreading on Facebook. As Facebook scams continue to boom and spam news feeds, Websense, a web security firm conducted an interesting study that explains how scam messages spread and how they work.

It looks like the Facebook Security team have started to take scam messages and phishing attacks seriously. They have come up with a 14 pages long document called â€œGuide To Facebook Securityâ€ which will help its users understand the social networkâ€™s security features and possible ways to protect their account from threats like malware and phishing attacks. It also includes tips on how users can avoid click-jacking and like-jacking scam messages and scam apps.

The India Against Corruption movement has not just aroused the real world, but also the virtual world. The social media is playing an important role in this movement. We are seeing people changing their profile pictures (DP’s) to Anna Hazare’s picture and posting messages on Facebook and Twitter (and Google Plus also), eventually spreading the news across the world.

Facebook appears to be piqued about Google Plus’ growth and is reported to be blocking Google Plus invites from the users’ Facebook news feed. This came into light when the senior vice president of social business, Vic Gundotra posted a video on YouTube demonstrating that Google+ invites that have been shared on Facebook did not show up in the news feed of other Facebook users.

Apple claimed that Samsung has copied the iPhone and iPad in creating the Galaxy Tab, and infringed its intellectual property rights, due to which the German court halted the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe (except in Netherlands). The decision, however, was ruled out by the DÃ¼sseldorf District Court stating that the German court does not have the authority to ban sales except within its own country.

HTC filed another lawsuit against Apple with the United States District Court of Delaware for infringing three of its patents, and seeking to halt the sale of Apple products within the US. HTC states that the patents are related to Appleâ€™s Mac computers, iPhones and iPads.

The Chinese authorities found out that these stores were not licensed by Apple, and has ordered them to stop using the Apple brand and logo anywhere in their store. Apple China, on the other hand, has accused the stores of biased competition and trademark infringement. But it looks like the owners of the “fake” stores are taking a “smarter” step in rebranding it. One such store has been rebranded to “Smart Store” from the not-to-be-used â€œApple Storeâ€.

India is celebrating its 64th Independence Day to mark its independence from the British rule. Google has created an awesome doodle placing the Red Fort, which on mouse over will greet you with a message, “Indian Independence Day”.

Since the death of the most wanted criminal and the terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden, there have been several scams and phishing attacks spreading on Facebook and Twitter, which claimed to show a leaked â€œdeath videoâ€ of the terrorist.

A chain message that erupted on Facebook sometime back, and is spreading like wildfire has left the Facebook team annoyed. The message states that Facebook has published phone numbers of all users under Accounts > Edit Friends > Contacts page.

Today, I came across a new hoax message that has gone viral on Facebook, which alerts users about a new virus program, which will download automatically and crash the user’s computer hard disk. Well, please note that this is a fake message and there is no such threat to any user.

Following the case filed by Apple against Samsung for patent infringement lawsuits in April, a German court passed down a initial injunction by bringing to halt all distribution of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the European countries earlier this morning.